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Time for a New Coach

Thursday, December 3, 2009

The Senate banking committee on Thursday took up the nomination of
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for a second term. On the eve of
the confirmation hearing, Senator Bernie Sanders placed a hold on the
nomination, a Senate procedure that allows any senator to block a
nominee. “When you have a football coach who keeps losing games, you
have to bring in someone new,” Sanders said. Bernanke has a long
history of misreading the economy and placing the interest of Wall
Street above the interests of the middle class and working people.
Back in 2006, when he headed President George W. Bush’s Council of
Economic Advisors, Bernanke declared that “the U.S. economy continues
to be well positioned for long-term growth." By 2008, months before the
government-chartered home mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
imploded, Bernanke said they were “adequately capitalized” and “in no
danger of failing.” That summer, as he surveyed a deregulated Wall
Street’s risky practices that were rife with reckless speculation, the
chairman blithely assured that the markets were fine. “I don’t think
the system is broken.” It was. It is. Said Sanders: “The American
people want a new direction on Wall Street and at the Fed. They do not
want as chairman someone who has been part of the problem and who has
been responsible for many of the enormous difficulties that we are now
experiencing. It’s time for a change at the Fed.”